The Connexions of the Stage

Networks

Six views of theatrical relation — by decade or across the full era: playhouses and players; who shared the stage with whom; which plays were billed together; which performers dominated which works; the full three-way ecosystem; and which venues competed for the same talent.

1760s
Rendering network…

Theatres maps each performer to the playhouses where they worked, a bipartite graph of houses and players weighted by appearances. Co‑casting draws a line between every pair of performers who shared a stage more than twice, revealing the ensembles that gave each house its character. Programme connects each mainpiece to the afterpieces it was billed with: a map of the evening’s typical architecture. Works links performers to the plays and entertainments they appeared in most, showing who “owned” a role or repertoire. Ecosystem places all three node types, playhouses, performers, and works, in a single graph, tracing the full web of theatrical relations. Venues connects playhouses by the performers they shared, revealing which houses competed for the same talent and which operated in separate worlds.